


Heaven and Hell were words to me

by Sheerclaw



Category: Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cat Cafe Date, Drinking, Language, Nonbinary Main Character, Other, Pranking, Recreational Drug Use, Rivals to Friends to Lovers, Rivals to Lovers, but do they really???, like believe me when i say slowburn, nonbinary characters - Freeform, oh shit now theyre kissing what, slowburn, the barbarian tattoo artist and the sorcerer hate each other, this is probably better than what the summary would have you believe, yes this is fanfic of a pairing in a campaign im in
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:28:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24534607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheerclaw/pseuds/Sheerclaw
Summary: Erris has worked for years to open their own tattoo parlor, and it's finally happening. The only issue is that they have no fucking clue how to do interior design in literally any capacity. They try to ask for help from Servius, the florist across the street, but he immediately insults Erris's building (because, to be fair, it is super ugly the way it is). They start pranking each other in very passive aggressive ways, and everyone gets very tired of this shit real fast.
Relationships: Erris/Servius, Original Dungeons & Dragons Character(s)/Original Dungeons & Dragons Character(s)
Kudos: 5





	1. Is that the kind'a way to face the burning heat?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For reference:
> 
> Erris - the tattoo artist (originally a blood angel barbarian, they/them)  
> Servius - the florist (originally a white-dragon-turned-elf sorcerer, he/him)  
> Opal - the fortune teller (originally a nymph circle of the stars druid, she/her)  
> Myrin - the private investigator (originally a wood elf shaman ranger, they/them)  
> Slyannia - the theater kid (originally a changeling trickster rogue, she/her)  
> Vesvidir - the drug dealer (originally an NPC of unknown/he keeps changing race, bard, he/him)

“No, Erris, I’m serious. It’s a nice place but it needs some  _ ambiance _ , you know?”

“Mhm,”

“Don’t shrug me off! C’mon, a skull over there, maybe a stag head above that chair…”

“Myrin, your interior design is really lacking. Plus you know I’m not into all that vulture culture shit or whatever you call it,” Erris said with a roll of their eyes. Myrin feigned a gasp.

“Why I never! You wound me. Really,” they said and then clutched their heart like they’d been shot. “But, no, I’m serious. Get some flowers in here or something. Maybe some fish since you like that pirate aesthetic. Just… anything.”

Erris raised an eyebrow and smirked. “You trying to say I don’t know how to decorate?”

Myrin frowned and gestured to the modestly sized waiting room of the tattoo parlor.

“Erris, please, I love you, but this place is barren. I’m proud that you at least bothered to paint the walls red, but seriously.”

Erris waved off their comment and shrugged. They were about to bite back with something snarky, but a bark outside drew both of their attention.

Myrin sighed with defeat and said, “Aral says it’s time to go. I’ll swing by later after this job, but you better think about what I said. Your clients will take one look at this place and immediately leave.”

With that, Myrin drew their scarf over their nose and swung the front door open. Aral, a dark brown leonberger (who Erris was convinced was at least half wolf) pounced onto Myrin and knocked them to the ground. He was almost as big as Myrin and Erris, but Myrin didn’t hint at any pain. They pushed him off, bid Erris farewell, and closed the door behind them.

Now alone, Erris sighed and looked around their new tattoo parlor. They’d spent years saving just to afford rent in this area, at one point being desperate enough to do some jobs for their friend Vesvidr who totally wasn’t a drug dealer. After securing rent, they’d spent two months fixing the place up, hand painting the walls a deep red, acquiring and moving in plum and black furniture, installing mirrors in the back rooms, getting all the actual tattoo equipment they needed… The list went on and on. Ever since leaving their hometown a few years ago, it had been an exhausting journey getting to where they were now. 

Along the way, Erris had fallen in love with the art of tattoos and even got their entire left side inked with words from their native language. They were mostly passages from their favorite books or proverbs from their hometown, but they’d be lying if they didn’t think having half their body tattooed in a strange language didn’t look a  _ little _ bit badass. There was also the most recent addition they’d gotten, which was an imposing image of a pair of wings scrawling across their back.

“Come on Erris, now’s not the time to get sidetracked,” they muttered to themself, crossing their arms and eyeing the plain walls. They supposed a bit of decoration couldn’t  _ hurt _ .

With a bit of a pout, Erris peered outside through the tall window by the door out to the street. Directly across the street lay a flower shop called  _ The Dragon’s Garden  _ with a light blue and silver exterior. Flowers of seemingly every color lined the windows on either side of its central door, and Erris frowned at the sight. Flowers might be a bit too  _ dorky _ or something, right?

On the left of the flower shop was a building marked  _ Madea’s Bakery _ with architecture like a mix of  _ your grandmother’s 200 year old house _ and  _ a literal child’s fantasy world,  _ but Erris found it charming in it’s own way. On the right of the florist was a place called  _ Oceanside Tarot _ , which confused the hell out of Erris because they weren’t anywhere near the ocean, but the outside of the building was decorated with turtles, octopi, and brightly painted signs that it almost convinced Erris they actually were seaside. Almost.

On Erris’s side of the street, they knew that to the left of their parlor was a decently trendy bar with a modern style. When they first started renting the space for the parlor, they joked that the bar might be good for business if people were drunk enough to make permanent mistakes. The shop on the right of their building was a bit less interesting, as it was just a normal convenience store.

Erris glanced around the room and sighed. They  _ did _ really like the pirate aesthetic, and there was a pretty perfect space next to one of the plum couches on the east wall that could easily fit a big fish tank.  _ I’ll need to stay on the lookout for large paintings of ships and stuff, too. Maybe some rope decorations or something, or model ships. Shit like that. _

Chancing another look outside, their gaze found the flower shop again. It wasn’t like checking it out would  _ kill  _ them or anything, right? Erris threw on a light black jacket over their mostly-unbuttoned red dress shirt, which of course was tucked into their black jeans to get the pirate silhouette, and locked the door behind them. They almost tripped on a rock placed suspiciously right outside the door to the parlor, but didn’t think much of it before wandering across the street to  _ The Dragon’s Garden. _

The first thing Erris noticed upon walking inside was  _ holy shit why the fuck is it so cold in here? _ The air conditioning was on full blast and it felt like it was 10 degrees*. They hugged their jacket to their chest in order to keep their teeth from chattering and took a sweep of the shop.

Open shelves lined one wall and cases like the ones in grocery stores lined the other. There were light wooden counters and displays everywhere they could fit while still having room to walk around between them, and everything was covered in plants. Some tables, like the one with succulents and another with some large leafy potted plants had long heat lamps running over them. It looked like the cases held basic arrangements and the shelves had living, potted plants. There were also some small stone statues of dragons here and there as decoration, but even then they seemed to get swallowed up by the plants. Erris’s knowledge of plants was admittedly limited, but they could recognize roses, carnations, and orchids when they saw them. Everything else was a mystery.

Someone must have heard the bell above the door chime as Erris came in, because there was rustling in the back. A few moments later, a short, pale young man with white hair poked his head out through a blue curtain behind the counter. He blinked at Erris with clear blue eyes before clearing his throat.

“Can I help you?” he asked, though Erris thought he sounded a bit annoyed. Maybe that was just his voice.

“Yeah, I’m Erris. I own the tattoo parlor across the street and-”

The young man scoffed and left the shelter of his curtain. He was wearing a sleeveless, high-collared light blue button up that hugged his chest. He was draped in an oversized white fur coat that he wore off his shoulders, exposing the pale skin to the cold. Freckles hugged the side of his face and neck but strangely didn’t reach past the corners of his eyes. The small silver name tag on his shirt said  _ Servius _ .

“Oh.  _ That _ eyesore. What do you want?”

“I… Excuse me?”

Servius put his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes.

“It’s a blank building with no signs and plain doors. You don’t even have its name posted anywhere, and from what I could see through the  _ empty _ windows, you barely even have furniture,” he said with a smirk. Erris’s mouth dropped in disbelief.

“Why the fuck do you think I even bothered to come in here? For your lovely personality? No, I was  _ planning _ on putting some flowers in there, but since you’re such an absolute asshole-”

Servius smiled with an expression so smug and arrogant that Erris wanted to slap it off him. He tilted his head up and through his sneer said, “You’ll need a lot more than just flowers to make that dreadful place inviting.”

The entire conversation was so completely far from what Erris had expected that they couldn’t form any thought besides  _ what the fuck is this dude’s problem? _ In their infinite wisdom, Erris just stared for a few seconds before turning on their heel and storming out of the store.

“Pleasure meeting you!” Servius called, voice so thick with sarcasm that Erris was surprised he didn’t choke on it.

Erris slammed the door behind them and stood eerily still. Despite how cold it had been inside, their blood felt like it was boiling. In favor of not causing a scene in the middle of the street, they chose a direction and started walking. The streets of Callydyr were familiar enough by now -- living in one place for five years will do that to you -- but it was still a big enough city to get lost in if you walked long enough.

By the time Erris’s anger ebbed away, they didn’t recognize the buildings around them. They ducked into an alley between an antique shop and a thrift store to anchor themself for a second. The cloudy sky peeked its grey face into the alley from between the tops of the buildings, and Erris bit back another wave of anger. They took in a breath so deep it hurt their lungs to hold and then slowly let it out.

Erris stepped back onto the sidewalk and decided against spending any more time wading through crowds. In a split decision, they ducked into the antique shop. A 30-something woman with smooth dark skin and a devilish smile greeted them as they entered, and Erris mentally thanked her for acting like a normal person unlike a particular florist. Looking through old furniture, art, jewelry, and knick-knacks was surprisingly calming. They actually found a couple model ships in glass bottles with wooden stands and a vintage globe, but quickly realized they didn’t have a way to get them from here to their parlor.

“You wouldn’t happen to hold stuff for people to buy later, would you?”

The woman just smiled and shook her head as she leaned across the glass counter. She tilted her head toward a sign on the wall behind her, which read:

_ Our hands hold not, _

_ For a price you cannot pay. _

_ Our arms receive not, _

_ For a gift you don’t relay. _

A simple ‘no holds, no refunds’ sign would have done, but Erris appreciated the originality. They hesitantly put what they found down and fumbled around in their pockets for their phone.

Erris tried calling Myrin, but they didn’t pick up. They tried Vesvidr next, who picked up on the fifth ring. Erris could hear music thumping through the speaker, and loud mumblings that might have been a crowd.

“ _ Erris! Yeah! What is it? _ ”

“Vesvidr, it’s like… noon. What the hell are you doing?”

“ _ Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Look I’m kinda busy right now so if you're bleeding out or something call Myrin! Thanks! _ ” he said and then hung up.

Erris pulled their phone from their ear and frowned at it in disappointment. Their only friends in the world and neither of them can lend a car of any sort. Or even any spare time. Figures.

With a sigh, Erris moved to their navigating app, bookmarked the address of the antique store so they could come back later, and then calculated a route back to their tattoo parlor. They thanked the lady at the counter as they left.

By the time they returned to their parlor, they were too exhausted to see the two stones at their door before tripping over them.

“What the fuck?” They shouted, catching themself on the doorframe.

They kick around the two white stones with their black boot before bending down to pick them up. Upon inspection, the rocks were way too smooth to be naturally shaped how they are, and were also small enough to fit both in one hand. Erris gave the door to the parlor a once-over to check for dents in case someone was throwing the damn things, but the door was untarnished. With a frown, Erris stepped inside and set the fiends down on the front counter. They’d deal with this shit later. They had more important things to do, like finding lunch and hounding the people who were supposed to have delivered the sign for the parlor this morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *10 degrees Celsius, which is like 50 degrees Fahrenheit


	2. Lay me gently in the cold dark earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lovely afternoon excursion (aka most of the group goes shopping)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops

Madea’s Bakery had a small area designated for outside seating, which is exactly where Servius found himself sipping sweet iced tea as he stared with bemusement at the mess across the street. His favorite person to torment as of late, the tall, frankly-too-muscular-for-comfort tattooed idiot across the street, was flailing about in frustration at the crew attempting to mount a sign to the front of their ugly building. It really was a pity that they were spending so much time outside since it meant Servius didn’t have a chance to dump any more of his stones in front of their door for them to trip over.

With a sigh, Servius took another sip of his tea and peered through lowered eyelashes at the commotion. How could one person be so loud and angry at basically nothing?

“What’re you looking at?”

Servius tipped his head up to see his best friend Opal standing at the edge of the table, one hand on her hip, the other holding a pastry. She was clad in a frighteningly bright collection of cloth, with more layers than Servius could count in one look. Opal always had been more inclined to warm weather, especially compared to Servius who thrived in the cold, but the bundle of fabrics that covered his friend’s body seemed a bit much. Plus, it was only the middle of October.

“Just the new neighbor making a complete fool of themself,” Servius said with a snort before turning back to discreetly watch the havoc unfold.

Opal gracefully sat in the chair to Servius’s right and dug into her pastry. It was sweet enough for Servius’s teeth to hurt despite being a foot away, but he didn’t say anything.

“What’s their name, do you know? I haven’t met them yet but they seem nice,” Opal said with a smile, her eyes drawn to the noise as well.

“It’s Erris, and they’re easily angered.”

“Oh? You didn’t upset them, did you?”

The crew almost had the sign up fully now. There was a sheet covering the letters still, but Servius thought he could make out the words Demon and Ink amongst some other shapes. Of course they’d decide to name it something so edge. Aside from some conversation among the workers, the noise had died down too. Installations nowadays were taking less and less time, it seemed.

“Of course not! Erris and I are the absolute best of friends now, didn’t you hear?” Servius rolled his eyes and sipped at his tea again. “They barged into my shop yesterday to ask how to fix their hideous parlor.”

“And?” Opal prompted.

“And so I laughed in their face.”

“You did not. Servius,” Opal started, but then sighed. “They’re probably super nice and just under a lot of stress right now. You know how starting a business can be.”

The workers had started to pack up, and Erris had disappeared inside the parlor for something or other. Servius glared at the eyesore of a door that clung to its dark steel frame. That shade of red really didn’t suit the parlor at all, let alone the street.

“If they can’t handle the truth, I don’t need to waste my breath on them,” Servius said with a shrug. Besides, it’s not like I need to talk to them to make their life a bit more miserable.

Opal flicked a little bit of her pastry at Servius and shook her head.

“You need to make it up to them somehow. It’s the right thing to do.”

“I’ll get right on that,” Servius deadpanned before stroking at his fur coat. He didn’t even need it for the cold. He just liked how it looked.

Right before the crew sped away in their van, they tore the sheet off the sign. Servius felt a wave of nausea at the name it revealed. The Demonic Ink Parlor bared its teeth back, snarling in Servius’s face with all of its unsightly menace. Fantastic.

Their discussion slowly drifted to business, then to music, and eventually to their karaoke plans for Friday. Rather, Opal’s karaoke plans and Servius’s plans to enjoy it from a safe distance. It was something they did regularly enough to not be special, but still rare enough to look forward to, especially since Opal had a really nice voice.

In the middle of sharing horror stories about the facilities at some of the bars Opal had sung at, a dark green beater coughed and sputtered to a stop right in front of the tattoo parlor. It was a miracle the car didn’t fall apart once in park. Servius kept a careful eye on the scarfed stranger that stepped out of it, as well as the beast of a dog that followed. They kicked a couple of Servius’s stones out of the way before leading the dog inside. He pouted in response. He’d only ever seen Erris trip on them and wanted to spread as much misfortune as possible.

A few minutes later, Erris, their friend, and the dog left the parlor and crossed the street. For a second, Servius thought they were making their way over to him and Opal, but that was ridiculous. At least, it should have been ridiculous, but then they stopped at the gate to the bakery’s outdoor seating and Erris stared right at him.

“Good afternoon,” said Opal, punctuated with a smile. “I’m Opal. I suppose you know Servius.”

“Nice to meet you Opal, I’m Erris and this is Myrin. And yes, I had the… experience of meeting Servius yesterday.”

Servius smirked but didn’t grace them with a response. Opal poked his shin with her foot under the table. Erris cleared their throat.

“I know this is a huge favor to ask of people I don’t know,” Erris started, glancing politely at Opal only to return their death glare to Servius, “but do either of you have a car we can borrow?”

Servius stared at them blankly.

“What about the dreadful one your friend graced our street with?” Servius gestured to the pile of junk outside of the parlor. Erris’s friend pulled the scarf down from over their mouth and nose.

“It’s not big enough for what we need it for, which Erris didn’t think of before I drove here.”

“Hmm, typical,” Servius said with a sharp laugh. Of course someone that airheaded wouldn’t think of something that important.

Opal rolled her eyes and nudged Servius with her elbow.

“Servius has a van for flower delivery. Would that work?” She batted her eyelashes innocently, as if she hadn’t just betrayed their friendship.

“I have no such thing,” Servius cut in immediately, but Erris and Myrin just turned their heads to the side to look at the van parked outside his shop. It was marked with his logo and had the business number on it.

“So that isn’t your van then?” Myrin asked, smirking back.

“Not if you need to use it, it isn’t,” he said, only for Opal to slap him on the back with a big smile.

“Oh, Servius is just trying to mess with you. Of course you can borrow it! Right, Servius?” She turned to him, still smiling, and the fact that it didn’t feel like a threat made it a hundred times worse.

“...What I meant to say was that… uh… you won’t be using it without our help!” He said, returning Opal’s slap on the back. If you’re forcing me to do this, we’re doing it together.

Erris blinked in confusion. Servius guessed they did that a lot, considering that they didn’t seem like the brightest.

“You’re volunteering for something you don’t even know?”

“Why of course! After all, what are neighbors for?” Servius hoped Erris could hear how much he hated the idea of this with each ounce of sarcasm he added to his voice.

“...Right,” Erris said, and then explained that they need to go to an antique shop to pick up some decorations for their tattoo parlor. Servius sighed and crossed his arms. As much as he wanted to tease them for how little this would probably help, he at least appreciated that they were trying to fill that empty eyesore.

“I’ll grab the keys. They’re inside,” Servius said and then downed the rest of his tea. 

Opal, Erris, and the dog waited beside the van as Servius slipped through his door. He didn’t expect for Myrin to follow him inside, but he didn’t tell them not to. They weren’t breaking anything, so Servius didn’t mind leaving them in in the front as he disappeared behind the curtain to grab the keys from his desk. He didn’t get a whole lot of business in the winter and thus not a lot of use out of the van so it took him a couple minutes to find the keys, but eventually he returned to the front of the store with keys in hand. He found Myrin standing next to the peperomia, and his stomach sank into his feet.

“Something catch your eye?”

Myrin dug into one of the pots and stared at what they held in their hand. They turned to Servius and showed him the round white stone they held. It just so happened to be similar to the ones he’d been leaving outside of Erris’s door to trip them. Eerily similar, one might say.

“This isn’t going to be a problem, is it?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, trying to keep his voice even. He didn’t really care if he got exposed, but he had wanted to keep up his annoyances for as long as he could.

Myrin sighed and put the stone back.

“Do what you like, I don’t care. Just know that if they break an ankle or something because of these, I’ll help them sue.”

“Noted. Shall we?” Servius gestured to the door and the three impatient bodies that waited on the other side. Myrin grunted and led Servius outside. The group piled inside of the van with Servius driving, Erris in the passenger seat to navigate, and Opal, Myrin, and the dog in the back.

It turned out that Erris was competent in at least one thing, which was apparently navigating because the drive wasn’t as awful as Servius thought it would be. Opal spent the entire time talking mostly to the dog but also to Myrin, although it was mostly just to ask the dog’s name and if it was okay to pet him. It wasn’t a long drive either, not even with traffic. 15 minutes after setting out, Servius parked in a spot close enough to The Witch’s Counter to not to complain about the walk.

Servius didn’t mean to watch Erris shop; it sort of just happened. Opal had left him as soon as the group stepped inside to look at all of the antique jewelry and tarot decks, and Myrin had stayed outside with Aral so he wouldn’t be locked up in the van. That just left him and Erris, and considering what he’d seen of the bare walls and furniture in the parlor, he frankly didn’t trust Erris to find anything substantial or coherent.

Erris found a few items rather quickly, and Servius guessed that they’d seen them before and left them in a space they could find again.

“You’ll need more than a model ship and a globe. Anyway, I thought your parlor was demon themed. What’s with all the nautical stuff?”

Erris glanced back at him over their shoulder as if they were surprised he was paying attention.

“I like pirates,” they said, and after a pause, continued with, “plus, I don’t know how to decorate around demons.”

“You should have thought about that before you named your parlor after them, then.”

Erris took a deep breath and stared at a far corner.

“Yep, you’re right. Are you gonna help me or not?”

Servius raised an eyebrow. He shrugged and walked back a few shelves, gesturing to Erris with a finger to follow. After a couple of minutes of browsing, Servius handed Erris a small box with a demon head and some runes on the front.

“What am I supposed to use this for?”

“Business cards.”

Erris stared blankly back at Servius.

“...You do have business cards, right?”

Silence. A sigh.

“We’ll deal with that later,” Servius said, and then kicked a chest on the ground. “That looks sort of pirate-ish. Get that too.”

Erris was struggling to carry all of their items so they started to make trips back and forth to the counter on the promise that they were actually going to buy everything. Despite the weird riddle on the wall, Servius guessed that since they were the only 3 customers in the shop, it was fine. It wasn’t like anyone else was going to buy this stuff before Erris.

Servius also found something that looked like a demonic belt buckle, so he shoved it into Erris’s hands -- which were already overflowing with the lanterns he had pointed out -- and they grunted.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Put it on your open/closed sign. It’ll make it more unique.”

In addition to the model ship, globe, small box, chest, lanterns, and buckle, Servius also helped pick out: an old chandelier, a demonic incense burner, a mirror with tentacles and swirls around the edge, some ornate and thematic (and frankly quite large) picture frames, a skull with fangs and runes carved into it, an old pitcher with kraken vibes, and a vase with a pirate ship carved into it. 

“What’s gonna go in the vase?” Erris asked as they handed their card over to the woman at the register. Servius leaned on the glass counter and rested his head in his head.

“The pitcher, too. I’ll order some Armeria maritima. It should only take a week.”

“Am I supposed to know what that is off the top of my head?”

Now it was Servius’s turn to look confused.

“Uh… they’re more commonly known as sea thrift, if that helps.” Silence. “They’re like.. They’re these oceanside flowers.” Silence. “They’re pink. You do know what pink is, right?”

Erris flicked Servius’s ear and finished paying for their items. Servius didn’t bother looking at the price tag. It wasn’t his problem.

“Help me take these to the van,” Erris said, already picking up some of the bulkier items.

“Hell no. That’s what you brought your goon along for,” Servius said with a snort. He crossed his arms and went to the van, not even bothering to hold the door open for Erris.

Myrin and Opal were talking, or maybe Opal was just talking to Aral again, but the conversation came to a stop when Servius reached them.

“We’re done. Go help your friend,” he said to Myrin. They nodded, handed Opal the leash they’d been holding, opened the doors to the van, and then disappeared into the shop. Servius leaned against the door to the driver’s seat and waited for them to finish loading up. Once they shut the van doors, Servius turned to unlock the driver’s door only to suddenly find Erris’s hand on his shoulder.

“We’re not done. Give us ten more minutes,” they said, tilting their head to the thrift store next to the antique shop.

Servius let out a large sigh. It wasn’t like he’d already wasted his whole afternoon on this shit or anything. Hell, he was only here because Opal roped him into it.

“Five minutes or I leave you here.”

“Deal,” Erris smiled and then dipped into the thrift store with Myrin.

Seven minutes later, Erris and Myrin rushed through the door carrying two large paintings, ones which seemed suspiciously similar in size to a couple of the frames they’d just bought in the antique shop. As they passed Servius, he thought he saw a ship on one and some sort of monster on the other, but they were in such a hurry that he didn’t get a good look. The group piled back into the van.

“We still have one more stop,” Erris said.

Servius let out a long groan and threw his head against the seat.

“It’s the last one! I promise! In and out, super quick. I’ve already done all of the buying. We just need to pick everything up.”

“I better be getting paid for all this,” Servius grumbled before switching the van into the gear and getting onto the road.

Erris navigated him to a pet store, and they didn’t lie about being in and out. It took them and Myrin a couple trips, but eventually they hauled everything into the back and somehow made it fit with two people, a gigantic dog, a shit load of antiques back there too. What Servius saw them carry in looked like a large fish tank, an equally fitting number of fish, bags of gravel, and what he assumed to be tank decorations. Opal practically squealed in excitement when she saw the fish, and the whole drive back to their street she fawned over all of the bagged fish.

Servius parked the van in front of the tattoo parlor backwards so that the back was closest to the door. Erris and Myrin started moving everything inside, and Opal helped take the fish and some of the decorations in. Servius sat alone in the van through most of it, steeling himself for what was to come, but eventually he let himself into the parlor once most of the gear was inside.

They’d moved all of the fish stuff over to the side of one of the couches where a shelf sat. Servius must have missed Erris move it in that morning, because it definitely wasn’t there when he set the rocks out at the door and peeked through the windows at 7:30. The rest of the decorations were in a haphazard pile on the other side of the main room. Servius sighed and poked at the pile with his foot.

The others started setting up the fish, which Servius frankly didn’t want to stick around for, so he strode over Erris and pinched their bicep. God, they had way more muscle than they needed.

“Ow! What?”

“Pay me for chauffeuring you around so I can get out of here.”

“Aw, you’re not going to stay with us?” Opal asked, puppy-dog eyes and all. Servius shook his head.

“I’ve spent all day with you. I want to go home.”

Erris frowned and pulled out their wallet. They hesitantly handed over twenty bucks.

“That was supposed to be my dinner money, but it’s all I’ve got right now.”

“Great, thanks,” Servius said, turning on his heel and heading for the door. Opal cleared her throat and chased after him.

“See you guys tomorrow! Goodnight,” she called. The others said their goodbyes.

Out in the safety of the street, Opal elbowed Servius’s arm.

“I can’t believe you just took their dinner money. Look at how nice they are.”

“What was I supposed to do? Time is money,” Servius said as he reached the door to his flower shop. He wasn’t open today, so he just needed to put back the keys and lock up again.

“You could have taken them out to dinner-”

“No. That’s unreasonable.”

“Oh, come on-”

“Nope! Never in a million years.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha whoops


End file.
